The Globe, Dunstable

Corner pub in the backstreets of Dunstable. This is a good, traditional alehouse with plenty of character, along with a friendly barmaid and some chatty customers. It has an L-shaped interior. I sat just to the side of the entrance in one quiet corner of the pub. The ale range has gone downhill if anything since the last review. Just 3 handpulls were clipped - Shefford Dunstable Giant, Brains The Rev James & Lister's American Pale Ale. Another handpull was dispensing Thistly Cross Whisky Cask cider, which I chose. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the atmosphere of this pub and it is certainly the kind of place that I prefer frequenting. The lack of ales on this occasion has prevented me scoring any higher.

I made a post-work, midweek trip out to Dunstable specifically to check out this pub after it made it into the Top 50 pubs as voted for by Pubs Galore forum users a couple of years ago, so hopes were high, despite the potential for the ongoing pandemic restrictions to spoil the pub-going experience. Thankfully, such fears were unfounded as I found a classic back street ale house in full operation, although perhaps the modest turnout reflected on wider problems caused by the pandemic. The pub has a simple two room interior, with most of the action taking place in the much larger main bar area to the front and left. The room would no doubt have been formed into two or three separate rooms in the past but has now been opened out into a long space with the servery along the right-hand wall, close to the entrance. The bar has a traditional dark wood counter front and a matching bar back adorned with various odds and ends accumulated over the years, whilst the canopy and various high shelves around the room have been lined with an extensive beer bottle collection with various pump clips also affixed along its length. The pub has a nice Banks & Taylor branded pub sign and matching etched glass windows, but I didn’t see this branding extend inside the pub, so I’m not sure if the link with the brewery is still in place. To the right of the entrance there is a small seating area with some basic seating options around a nice fireplace on the end wall. The room is bare boarded and has half panelled walls with low stool seating to the front and opposite the bar and standard tables and chairs further back past the end of the bar counter. In the rear left corner, a couple of leather sofas round out the seating options, each serving two small upturned barrels that have been made into tables. The walls have been decorated with the usual breweriana, mirrors, posters, paintings and the like, typical of such a back street boozer, whilst a small bookcase stands at one end of the bar and has been stuffed full of old Good Beer Guides and other such appropriate pub reading materials. To the rear right, a door leads through to a side room which was closed on this visit, but had a couple of blackboards on the wall, with scores written on them in scruffy chalk handwriting, suggesting that dartboards might normally be hung here, although the room was now being used to store some excess furniture. An upright piano can be found in the rear right corner and a back door leads out to a concrete floored garden that boasted plenty of greenery and the usual garden furniture. The long run of handpulls included a great many that were unclipped, but four ales and one real cider were still available, with the ale options comprising Brains rev James, Skinners Kickov, Shefford Dunstable Giant and Vale Black Beauty. I ordered a pint of the latter from the friendly barmaid and received a luscious pint of porter that slipped down very nicely and underlined the pub’s credentials as a real ale destination. I really liked this place, which I found to be a homely, welcoming little pub with some interesting and excellently kept beer. Despite not quite finding the place fully back up to speed, there was plenty here to suggest that this is the ‘go-to’ place in Dunstable for cask ale drinkers and somewhere I would be more than happy to return to for an extended session.

Side-street alehouse with an elongated bar, an attractive side lounge and another side room at the back. Run by Banks & Taylor, although I couldn't see any of its beers on the eight of 12 operational handpumps. Having said that, the choice of guest ales in a range of styles was excellent, with a couple from Mallinson's and others from smaller breweries elsewhere around the country (e.g. Massey's Golden Bitter from the Heritage Brewing Company in Burton, £3.50). Also has a draught cider and a range of bottled beers (examples of which are on display around the bar, along with a fine display of pump clips and other breweriana).

Called into this 2019 Good Beer Guide pub, and what a sight along the bar with an array of cask beers. It is a B&T pub and there were 3 of their beers on, plus Clearwater Mariners, Trumans Zephyr, Oxford Craft Beer (Shotover) Triploid, Brunswick Offilers Nut Brown, Bath Frosty Hare. Colchester Brass Monkey and Everards Tiger. It is a true locals pub too, and would be great to live close to. Lovely atmosphere and good service for the 20 of us that turned up. We sampled and enjoyed 5 of the beers on offer.